Sydney Olympic Soccer Football Club is woven into the history that is Australian football and has over the years maintained its status as one of the most popular and respected clubs in Australia.

The history of Sydney Olympic spans five decades, beginning with the birth of the Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957. Pan-Hellenic competed in the New South Wales First Division. The original strip as worn by the players in those early days consisted of blue and white vertical stripes. In 2007 the club reverted to this strip and has kept it by popular demand.

A highlight for the Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club during the pre-National Soccer League era came ten years after the team's inception into Australian football. This was a New South Wales First Division Grand Final appearance in 1968. Despite going down 4-2 to Sydney City, it was an encouraging achievement for such a young club.

Pan-Hellenic Logo

In 1977 the Club stepped into a new era and many changes were made. There was a name change with Pan-Hellenic replaced by Sydney Olympic. The board of the Club also decided that it would become a foundation member of the then 'PSL'- Phillips Soccer League.
The Phillips Soccer League commenced in 1977 and was Australia's inaugural national soccer league.

Just two years after the commencement of the Phillips Soccer League, Sydney Olympic was relegated back to the New South Wales First Division despite finishing second last in 1979, but it was the bottom placed NSW club.

That spell back in State League competition did not last long with Sydney Olympic defeating the Parramatta Eagles in the 1980 Grand Final of the First Division. This secured Sydney Olympic a return to top flight Australian football in 1981.

From 1982 to 1992, Olympic finished in the top half on the league ladder for every season. This ten year period included winning two NSL Cups, in 1983 over Heildelberg and in 1985 over Preston, and runner up in two NSL Cups when losing to Adelaide City in 1989 and South Melbourne in 1989/90. This period also saw three Grand Final losses in 1984 to South Melbourne, 1986 to Adelaide City and 1989 to Marconi.

The season following on from Olympic's Grand Final loss to Marconi saw the two teams meet again in the Championship decider. This time, Sydney Olympic had its moment of glory. On May 20, 1990, the Blues defeated Marconi 2-0 before a crowd of 26,353 which was a record to that time in Australian football. The two goal scorers on the day for Sydney Olympic were Alistair Edwards in the first half with Robert Ironside securing the season 1989/90 Championship with a goal in the second period.

Grand Final Winners 2001/2002

For season 1995/96, Sydney Olympic formed a prosperous partnership with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and became known as UTS Sydney Olympic. During that time, the Club's home ground was Leichhardt Oval.

In season 1995/96 and two seasons earlier in 1993/94, Sydney Olympic went down in the elimination-final stage of the play-off series.

A change of home ground awaited the Blues going into season 1996/97. Belmore Sports Ground, in the more traditional heartland of Olympic, became the Club's new stable.

In April of 1997, Sydney Olympic enjoyed a record home attendance at Belmore of 13,724 against the Marconi Stallions.The Club's worst defeat came in January 1998 when the Canberra Cosmos inflicted an 8-1 loss on Sydney Olympic at Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan. Sydney Olympic's biggest win was a remarkable 6-0 defeat of South Melbourne in January 2000 at Belmore Sports Ground. During season 1998/99 Sydney Olympic was involved in a match which attracted the largest crowd for any regular National Soccer League season match excluding finals. That game was against the Northern Spirit at North Sydney Oval in what was the Spirit's debut match in the National Soccer League. That evening, 18,985 football-loving enthusiasts turned out to watch Sydney Olympic defeat new boys Northern Spirit by two goals to nil. Olympic golden boy Chris Kalantzis and Pablo Cardozo were the goal scorers.

Season 2000/01 saw Sydney Olympic finish fourth on the competition ladder. During the play-offs, Olympic made it through to just one game away from a Grand Final appearance, losing by two goals to nil against Minor Premiers South Melbourne in the Preliminary Final in Melbourne in May 2001.

A new and exciting era arose for the mighty Sydney Olympic in season 2001/02.

The Club relocated itself to a region which was deprived of representation at National Soccer League level. That area was the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south.

There was great enthusiasm for the world game in the Sutherland Shire with over 13,000 registered junior soccer players involved in the game.

Olympic played out of Toyota Park which is also the home ground of the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League team. The move had also involved a change of name from Sydney Olympic to 'Olympic Sharks' with the traditional blue and white colours of the Club still in place.

The move proved successful in its first year as a combination of on and off field successes led to Olympic capturing its second championship in 12 years when they defeated Perth Glory at Subiaco Oval in front of 42,000 fans. Ante Milicic's goal in the 47th minute was enough to earn Olympic the title, Champions of Australia.

In its second year at Toyota Park, despite dwindling attendances across the NSL as a whole, the Olympic Sharks managed to snare its first ever Minor Premiership by finishing on top of the NSL ladder, and made its second consecutive Grand Final appearance against Perth Glory. But fortune favoured the westerners who had a strong finals campaign. Glory defeated the Olympic Sharks 2-0 to capture their first ever Championship.

Despite the on field successes, the move to the Sutherland Shire was short lived. The poor attendances took its toll on the venture. For season 2003/2004 the club chose to revert to the widely preferred name of Sydney Olympic and moving to OKI Jubilee Stadium at Kogarah.

Following the demise of the NSL Sydney Olympic participated in the NSW Premier League in 2004/2005 and just missed out on the end-of-season final series.

In 2006 Sydney Olympic returned to Belmore Sports Ground and also forged a strong relationship with the Eastern Suburbs Soccer Football Association. However the club again failed to make the playoffs.

2007 will go down as one of Olympic's poorest on the field - finishing the season in second last place, but foundations were laid for a platform of future success. That platform reaped instant rewards when Sydney Olympic, with former Socceroo and Sydney Olympic great Milan Blagojevic at the helm, captured the 2008 pre-season Johnny Warren Cup with a gutsy 2-1 win over the Sutherland Sharks. Olympic were undefeated in their three round robin matches (two more were washed out) and lifted the trophy to bring smiles back to the fans of Sydney Olympic.

Olympic had a successful year but in the end the club became a victim of it's own success. Olympic made the final of the Tiger Turf Cup but lost 3-1 to Bankstown and ended the season just one game away from the Grand Final following a 2-1 loss to Sutherland Sharks. Olympic had finished the regular season in third place - a vast improvement from the previous year.

It is a fact that most clubs have experienced their biggest attendances at their home matches when Sydney Olympic provided the opposition. E.g. A crowd of 18,985 witnessed the Club defeat Northern Spirit by two goals to nil on the 9th October, 1998 at North Sydney Oval. This holds as the record crowd between any two clubs during the regular season of the NSL eclipsing the previous record of 18,367 set when Newcastle KB played Sydney Olympic on 14th April, 1979 at Energy Australia Stadium.

During the past two decades, Sydney Olympic has attracted and developed a large number of talented footballers resulting in international attention to the Club and to Australian Football through transfers such as Brett Emerton ($1.3M), Jason Polak ($0.7M) and Ned Zelic ($0.65M). The club has transferred more than 25 players to overseas clubs in the last 20 years.